


walking the wire

by OxSwan26



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Before Book 4, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, Kuvira Curses A Lot, Marriage Proposal, Three Year Gap, Varrick has crakchead energy but what's new, and the entirety of this one shot was edited at 2 am, and when i say a lot, cursing, half of this was written while i was sleep deprived, it's a lot, slight crack, somehow????
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:54:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25392682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OxSwan26/pseuds/OxSwan26
Summary: After a meeting that has gone on for far too long, all Kuvira wants to do is get to her bed, close her eyes, and drift away for a few hours. However, Baatar shows up with some very different plans.(or, how Baatar and Kuvira get engaged and reveal it to the world.)
Relationships: Baatar Jr./Kuvira (Avatar)
Kudos: 42





	walking the wire

**Author's Note:**

> This originally started as me just wanting to write the proposal since there's a big lack of that here on AO3, but it quickly morphed into sexual jokes and lots of cursing (somehow fluff morphed its way into this fic, glad I didn't decide to get angsty here), but that's my trademark now, I guess.
> 
> Anyways, English isn't my first language and I'm aware I still have a lot of things to improve when it comes to my writing. I hope you enjoy the read :D

Kuvira couldn’t pinpoint exactly when her feelings for Baatar became evident.

Maybe it was during her teenage years in Zaofu, when he was the only one to listen to her rambling on and on about the book she’d read or the new historical event she’d learned about. In turn, she’d listen to him make calculations out loud and explain the laws of physics, very complicated things she had never really grasped. But it was worth it, because Baatar’s face always lit up like the starry sky she dreamed of seeing again.

Maybe it was in those few days before she took the leap and left Zaofu - and Su - behind. She was going against everything good in her life, everything that had ever given her the sense of security she never got with her biological parents. Whatever the cause, fighting your friends or saving an entire kingdom from falling into ruins as it once had, Kuvira still wasn’t sure of what she was doing. At just twenty one years old, she was a captain leading her forces all over the Earth Kingdom. And Baatar was always by her side.

Maybe it was a few months after they took Ba Sing Se. Everyone was tired, begging for rest, but they couldn’t stop. Now that they had the capital, the other states would easily follow and fall into her command. They couldn’t stop, and Kuvira knew that. Baatar knew that. He spent countless nights in whatever room he could manage, tinkering away with a new machine or sketching what had come to his mind during the day. She’d stand in the doorway for a few moments, briefly forgetting the ravaging war she had to stop, and she’d admire his look of concentration - furrowed brows, green eyes so dark you could mistake them for brown or black. He always caught her and smiled back.

The feelings were amazing, butterflies creeping up her body, clouding her mind and yet making her clearly see the goal. The feelings were amazing, but not when they decided to creep up in the middle of a meeting that had long gone into the night. Every sight of someone wearing glasses or schematics on the table reminded her of Baatar, who she had excused from the meeting due to other advancements - a decision she came to regret ten minutes into the meeting.

Deciding the fate of any state was no joke, but Kuvira’s entire body was threatening to just shut down and leave her with her head on the table for a good while until she got a few hours of sleep.

The commanders and generals and head advisors seemed to share her thoughts. Silences got longer every time conversation was paused, and she wasn’t sure the fate of anything or anyone should be dropped in the hands of a group of people who needed to get some sleep or just get some.

“Well, I think this current business can wait until sunrise. I want to make these decisions level headed, and I’m not sure that’s possible right now. Please go get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow. Dismissed.”

Kuvira watched as people trickled out of the tent, leaving her alone with her thoughts, barely illuminated by lanterns scattered along the walls. She looked down at the papers she’d have to read by ten the next morning (even though the meeting was at eight thirty), and wished she hadn’t decided to develop her writing to the point she used ten words to convey what she could do in one.

“Hey,” a voice said from the other side of the tent, pulling Kuvira out of her funk.

She looked up and saw Baatar walking in, half of his body covered by the tarp. He held two uncovered bowls, a few pairs of chopsticks and a smile that made her respond with happiness of her own (like he hadn’t been working tirelessly for hours on end and ended up covered in grease and with the will to kill Varrick the size of a lion turtle).

“I need sleep,” Kuvira said, pounding her fist with more strength than necessary, courtesy of having her brain cells reduced to what was probably a grey sudge.

But Baatar wasn’t scared, didn’t flinch or run away. He walked forward and put one of the bowls down in front of her, chopsticks stabbing the rice. The sweet smell of the food wafted into her nostrils, and the rumbling in her stomach reminded her the meeting started in the afternoon and they had missed dinner by a longshot.

“Food first. You can’t unite the states if your body is falling apart.”

“Correction, I can’t unite the states if my brain constantly gets turned into sludge after these meetings. Lee and Xin can’t get along even after their platoons worked together when we took Ba Sing Se, others are begging for resources we don’t have because Raiko has refused to help over and over, and the Avatar is still down in the South Pole.”

As Kuvira shoved the food in her mouth and went on about the day’s challenges and victories (with a few comments from Baatar here and there), she totally didn’t notice the way his face lit up when she was happy or the way he frowned when she mentioned something distressing, or how cute he looked with grains of rice stuck to his nose and a smile on his lips.

Spirits, even after a year of dating and an extra six months of working together she lost any and all semblance of the control she held when he was in the room. Sometimes her hands would want to run all over the crevasses and curves of his body, lavish every bit of exposed skin with kisses, scratch it and leave  _ her _ marks all over.

On other occasions much like this one, Kuvira wanted to snuggle up against Baatar and let her worries melt away, until they were the only thing left on this world and could do anything they wanted - visit cities and villages scattered around the land, spend time exploring forests and caves. She wanted to live life like no one even knew her name.

Looking up from her now empty bowl, Kuvira paid more attention to Baatar’s speech. Fiddling with hair strands, remnants of what her braid had been in the morning, she tried to keep her eyes open; as much as they wanted to close, if Baatar was speaking, she would keep them open.

“... and that’s when I had to write up Varrick for the third time just today.”

“Wait. Three times? You didn’t think almost blowing up the train three fucking times was enough to stop the meeting?”

“I recall thinking that and walking here just as the floor started to shake. Knowing you, I wasn’t about to mess with whatever was going on.”

Kuvira put down her chopsticks and chuckled. Yeah, she remembered that. “And that general will be running drills with their squad for the next week.”

“Do I want to know why?”

“No.”

They sat in silence, Kuvira putting her legs up in Baatar’s lap and him returning the favor by dragging his hands along the fabric, soft sparks of his touch reaching her skin. Even though they were alone, she sneaked glances at his face: tired, a sliver of hope still shining through.

His eyes were green, a similar shade to hers, but there was something different. Her own were filled with sorrow, sadness, the pressure of uniting through peace and not oppression. Baatar’s, however, held all the creativity and brilliance the world allowed its best inventor; happiness and hope, albeit both were tinged by a pang of regret Kuvira knew would never quite go away.

When his hand ran over her knees again, she reached out and held it there.

The sun was far gone in its confines, but her body started to buzz like never before. At each from Baatar, every time his hand moved beneath hers, she wanted to scream. If she was the Avatar, she’d have entered the Avatar state long ago.

“I need to go to sleep. I won’t get anything done in this state and I need to have a clear head in a few hours,” she said, voice barely above a whisper.

Kuvira leaned forward and let her head rest on her free hand. Sure, the buzz was pleasant; as long as her legs were working, she could get herself to her room and just crash, but her brain wouldn’t go to sleep as long as the buzz continued inside her skull.

“Hey,” Baatar said.

Kuvira’s whole body jerked awake, and then it was a mess of legs until they could put their feet down and look at each other, hair rustled even further.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

Kuvira pinched the bridge of her nose and let her fingers rest there for a little while, begging her head to stop being a little bitch for more than ten seconds in a row. She hoisted herself up and began walking towards the door (two glorified pieces of tarp) before she felt a hand on her own. Not pushing or pulling, just a mess of entangled fingers.

Once they were both outside, Kuvira turned around to face Baatar. Few guards roamed the paths this late, and the ones that did knew better than to talk about their captain’s love life.

“Was there something you wanted to say?” she asked.

“Actually… there’s something I wanted to show you.” Baatar turned away and began walking, his hand still entangled with Kuvira’s. Once he was almost out of reach, her grip was strong enough to make him turn around again, this time wearing a puzzled look. She could feel sleep tugging at her eyelids, begging them to obscure the entire world for a little while. Kuvira knew it would be more than a few minutes, and would not fall asleep  _ standing _ in the middle of camp.

“Baatar, please. Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

“You see those trees and that cliff?”

“They’ll still be there when we wake up. Come on.”

“Please, give me ten minutes. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

As much as she was tired, as much as her entire body was begging to lay down in the softness of her bed sheets and mattress, Baatar was softer and it didn’t take many words for her to be convinced.

Kuvira smiled and let him guide her through a short but windy path up the small hill and in the direction of the trees he’d pointed out. They used the night as cover, having to stand in  _ very _ close proximity to evade the guards’ sight - it’s not like they needed to actually do that, the captain didn’t need to justify her private life to the public, but it made the most boring (and shortest) journey of her life into something almost worthy of being in one of Varrick’s movers.

For a few moments, Kuvira let Baatar take charge of everything, and she enjoyed crisp fresh air and the feel of her element around her. After admiring her surroundings, she moved her attention to the hand holding hers, and the man it belonged to.

Years go, if you’d asked her if she’d ever sneak out in the middle of the night to completely ignore her responsibilities - which consisted of building an empire to make sure an entire nation didn’t fall into chaos again - attached to a man who spent most of his time buried in machines and grease (sometimes in her, but that’s not really what matters here), she’d have whacked you in the head.

Right now, as Baatar sat on a bed of leaves and gestured for her to the same, Kuvira couldn’t be more grateful for this tiny part of her life, the one that still made her feel like a real person and not a killing machine that spat out care boxes every once in a while.

“The stars are pretty,” he said.

Kuvira leaned against the large tree behind them and held her gaze on him. “Yes, they are.”

_ Kuvira age 9, Baatar age 10 _

_ Kuvira slid her head from under the blankets and put a hand over her mouth, trying to stifle the cries from her throat. She shouldn’t be scared, it was just the wind blowing some branches against the window, but in her mind it was much more. _

_ It was her father coming home from a meeting and slamming the door as he walked in, eyes full of rage, looking for something - or someone - to be his target. It was her mother yelling and brandishing a hot metal spoon, threatening to burn Kuvira’s face if she didn’t behave. It was all the times she’d been too weak in her former home to protect her body and mind. _

_ The door to her room creaked, and she drew the blankets even closer to her, as if they could ever be a shield against someone who wanted to cause her pain. _

_ At first, the person who walked in kept quiet, so it definitely wasn’t Su; the woman would have turned the lights on and opened her mouth before that. It couldn’t be her husband, he was always stuck in his office or workshop or whatever it was he decided to call it. Opal and the twins were too young to know how to play pranks. Huan was probably sound asleep in his bed, Su’s sleeping habits had rubbed off on him, rising with the sun and not the moon. _

_ “Baatar?” she managed to say into the darkness. _

_ A few clinks and several strings of words Su should never hear told her she was on the right path. “Want me to turn on the lights?” _

_ Kuvira sniffled and wiped it off on the top blanket. “Yes.” _

_ Seconds later, she was rubbing her eyes, trying to get used to the newfound glow of her room. _

_ Baatar was sitting on the floor, surrounded by a paint bucket, brushes of various sizes, and drawings that were just several dots, some of them connected by thick lines. _

_ “It’s the middle of the night.” _

_ “I heard you cry and wanted to help.” _

_ Kuvira wrapped the blankets and sat against the wall, looking down at the boy sitting in the middle of her room. What was paint supposed to do, several layers on the walls to try and muffle sound? _

_ “And how exactly are you going to do that?” _

_ He scooped up the materials and dumped them on her bed, following soon after. Holding one of the drawings in front of her, he leaned in. “These are the patterns stars make in the sky. When it’s night, you can look up and form them in your head.” _

_ “But the domes close at night, how can you know what the sky looks like?” _

_ “My dad has studied how the stars move, and my mom remembers things from when she was building Zaofu. And books! There are many books that tell you what the sky looks like and how it works.” _

_ She studied the paper in front of her more carefully. Most of it looked like disfigured circles and squares, but Baatar piped in once in a while, pointing at one of the individual shapes (which he called “constellations’) and told a small story, like that of a man with horse legs that shot a bow and arrow, or two spirits that circled each other in a never ending chase. _

_ “This is what the sky outside looks like?” _

_ “I don’t know how to draw, so some of this is probably wrong.” _

_ “And coming here with a paint bucket and brushes is a good idea? What even is the idea?” _

_ “This paint is special. It doesn’t look like much right now, but when you turn off the lights, it glows. I brought the green version because I know you like green.” _

_ Kuvira smiled. This was not how she thought she’d spend her night, painting splotches all over the ceiling of her bedroom, but it was worth it. It looked super pretty when Baatar turned off the lights and walked off, and Su almost had a heart attack when she walked in without turning on the lights and screamed her lungs off because of all the stains on the floor. _

Kuvira studied the camp, lit up only by lanterns they had installed days prior and the glow of the moon. Usually, she’d want noise, movement. Platoons running drills; commanders and sergeants yelling over tactics she knew wouldn’t work; the occasional but much too frequent explosion from the lab car that would send her heart through the roof, until Zhu Li came out and assured her they were already working on getting back on track with the lost project; all the smiles she stole from Baatar before they made their relationship known, and all the hugs she got after.

Now, she enjoyed the quiet. She let her head rest on Baatar’s shoulder, her body wrapped up in a gentle and warm embrace. Her arms lay across his lap, caressing his legs and free hand.

“Was this what you wanted to show me? It’s beautiful, but-”

She was interrupted by Baatar leaning in and kissing her with all the passion they couldn’t - and wouldn’t - share with the world. A hand was grasping at her hair, carefully undoing the remaining tresses of what wasn’t a braid anymore. Another was pulling their bodies closer, like the air between them was poison that couldn’t disappear fast enough.

At one point, Kuvira sat in Baatar’s lap, legs around his torso and lips nipping at his ear. When she felt a pair of hands run down her back, she pulled away, letting her own arms hang off his shoulders. “Wouldn’t this be more comfortable in one of our beds?”

Baatar looked her in the eyes before untangling his arms and reaching for his pocket, from which he pulled out a small bag closed with a drawstring.

The few seconds they spent in silence as Baatar fiddled with the small ropes allowed Kuvira to see him in an old but favorite light. They had been swamped in work ever since they left Zaofu - she had the task of being a friendly conqueror as many had put it, and he was the brilliant mind behind her conquests.

As much as they shared moments across days and places, this right here, the nerdy and clumsy boy she had fallen for years ago, she missed him. She missed the stars on her ceiling even though she could just look out of the window, she missed sneaking around the estate even though they were free to do whatever they damn well pleased.

Her eyes travelled with the bag until they met Baatar’s again. He chuckled, and Kuvira couldn’t stop a grin from spreading across her face.

“I have to say, this was very different in my mind.”

“How so?”

“Well, I didn’t expect the meeting to run into the night, and I sure as all spirits didn’t think I’d have to write Varrick up three times. I wanted to show you the sunset, but I guess my plans got derailed.”

“At this point, you’ll show me the sunrise instead.”

The night encased them in shades of black and green, but Kuvira could see a smile forming on Baatar’s lips. Close to her chest, he still fidgeted with the drawstring bag, pulling out a small but beautifully intricate piece he let rest in his hands for a little while.

“I think our work over this last year made me realize something. If there’s a person I want to see every day, to have by my side, it’s you.”

Words… words words words. Words were too hard to make sense of. All Kuvira knew in that moment was the man in front of her and the ring he held in his open palm. The stars became brighter and the earth around her came calling, a swirl of emotions threatening to swallow her whole. So she did what her heart was begging to.

Kuvira leaned and kissed Baatar like it was the last time she could ever lay eyes on him. She let her hands wander wherever they wanted to, landing on his neck and pulling him closer.

“Is that a yes?” he whispered into the kiss.

Kuvira smiled and let out a laugh. A few tears trickled down her face, her lips slightly parted from the gasp she tried to hide with a kiss. “What do you think, you goof?”

Baatar pushed her away and held the ring in between them, Kuvira now in the right state of mind to appreciate it. She let her hand rest on his as he slid the intricate piece down her finger, the cold metal bringing her out of her blissful daze.

“I was scared, you know. Scared you’d put our relationship aside for the sake of uniting the states.”

His sentence shattered a small part of her heart. After everything they’d been through, how could he still wonder if she’d stand by his side?

Kuvira moved her hands from the base of Baatar’s neck to his cheeks, wanting to caress his skin and calm his mind. “You’re right, I do have many duties to the world. The Great Uniter belongs to the people, the captain belongs to the guard, the dancer belongs to the troupe. But the person I wanna be belongs to you.”

Baatar laughed and let his hands wander down to the small of her back, pulling her closer again. “If I had known a simple ring would turn you so soft, I’d have done this a lot earlier.”

“That doesn’t change the fact my words are true.” She extended her left arm to get a better look at the ring, her hand resting on the bark of the tree. The band stayed just below her knuckle, sprawling out in a stunning weave of the lightest gray metal and the greenest crystals. “How did you even manage to make this?”

“I only designed it. One of your generals, Silah, she was the one to make it with a few materials I managed to sneak out of the lab. Go easy on her the next few days.”

“I knew there was a reason she was the only person I didn’t wanna throw off the face of a cliff today. Well, I guess we need to celebrate.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

“I remember mentioning I needed to go to bed.”

***

Kuvira blinked at the sudden stream of light into the room. Trying to do something to ease the pain in her eyes, she twisted her body and noticed an arm barely below her breasts trapping her in a warm embrace beneath slightly damp sheets. She turned her head and was faced with sleepy eyes and a cute, groggy smile.

“Morning,” Baatar said, his voice raspy from the night they’d spent together.

Kuvira smiled, but before she could speak, Baatar leaned in and kissed her, eager to repeat his latest feat. She smiled into the kiss and wrapped her leg around his, flipping so she was on top, and almost kicking all the sheets out of the bed.

Their bodies were together, skin on skin, electricity running through their veins. Kuvira looked down. Her face was not even an inch away from Baatar’s, and she could feel his breath down her neck, caressing her skin without touch.

“Morning to you, too,” Kuvira replied, eyes glimmering with a challenge.

“I think this has to be my favorite alarm clock.”

Alarm clock. Alarm. Clock. Why were those two words ringing around in her mind? Surely an alarm clock wasn’t that big of a deal, she had one on her nightstand and oh, fuck.

Kuvira did her best to look around the room as two hands travelled up and down her body, pressing her down against bare skin and defined muscles. There were only one or two objects remaining on the nightstand, and the papers that were neatly stacked on her desk last night were now on the floor, not to mention most of her stationery was keeping the papers company, and the few items that held on and stayed on the desk were now ruined.

She couldn’t help but chuckle as memories of the night she’d shared with Baatar came flooding in, painfully reminding her that her muscles didn’t need to be worked out to the point of disintegration and collapse. The laughter stopped when she saw the missing alarm clock on the floor with cogs and screws and shattered glass nearby.

“Baatar, what time is it?”

He raised his arms to point at something behind her. “That clock over there says it’s almost nine.”

Kuvira was filled with a surge of energy and jumped off the bed, probably bruising Baatar in the process. “Oh fuck. Shit, oh no.” She reached for her bindings and underwear, and put them on in record time.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“I scheduled a meeting for eight thirty, I’m amazed no one’s knocked yet.”

Someone knocked.

“Really? Really? Fucking spirits,” Kuvira added whispering so the person outside wouldn’t hear, even though she’d been much less considerate the previous night, stumbling over the boots she wanted to pick up and put on before she answered the door. Fortunately, she already had respectable clothing on, but not something she’d go to the meeting in if she could help it. “Who is it?”

“General Silah, captain.”

Kuvira walked to the door and reached for the doorknob. For a few seconds, she took in the ring she’d been wearing since last night. How it hadn’t dropped off during everything, she would never figure out. Under natural light, she could tell the crystals were the ones they had brought from the Cave of Two Lovers, and grinned at the thought.

“Is this about the meeting?” Kuvira asked after opening the door.

The young woman in front of her nodded. “People are restless and worried, but we didn’t want to disturb-”

“-hello, boss! How are we- oh, I see the bling on you. I hadn’t pegged you for the jewelry type, that is fancy indeed. Wait, was it Baatar? I knew it! Congratulations, seems like you need it.”

How the actual fuck did he manage to get into this car when someone was watching? And how did he catch a glimpse of the ring when her hand wasn’t… no, her hand was in his line of sight. Well, damn.

“Varrick, come here. Varrick! He’s gone, isn’t he?” 

Silah nodded, a somber look on her face, but Kuvira could see right through it and tell the woman was trying desperately not to laugh.

“Guess the meeting’s gonna have to wait. Get everyone and tell them I’ll be out in ten minutes. If Varrick is trying to spread the news, threaten him with something about taking Zhu Li. Oh, and thank you for the ring, general.”

The younger woman nodded and was the one to close the door, leaving Kuvira to meditate on her thoughts and solve several problems very fast.

She turned around to look at the state of the room from a better perspective. For lack of better words, it was a fucking mess.

“Is everything okay?”

Kuvira ran to the small bathroom and did what she could to make it seem like her body hadn’t pounced all around her bedroom. “Varrick saw the ring.” She applied makeup under her eyes and braided her hair with an incredible speed.

Leaving the bathroom, she drew the uniform to her by its metal collar. It was tight and clung to all the wrong places, but she wasn’t about to complain about something so trivial when many more important things were on the horizon.

Somehow, Baatar was already perfectly presentable. His glasses weren’t even foggy, his uniform didn’t have a single wrinkle and there were no bags under his eyes.

“How?”

Kuvira leaned against a wall and Baatar walked forward, wrapping his arms around her waist. She couldn't help but smile - it was one of his favorite things to do ever since they had gone public with their relationship, and she wasn’t going to tell him to stop.

“Guess he followed Silah. You’re way too calm for someone who has several projects on hold. Besides, I thought you’d want to punch Varrick or something for this.”

“I’m saving my anger for when I’m alone with him, wouldn’t want to be punished for anything.”

“Your calm is annoying.”

***

Kuvira strode through the walkways of the train, Baatar in tow, wondering how they could have actually built a train this damn large and how there weren’t more complaints of people barging into the wrong rooms, because it all looked the same to her. Granted, not many could say they had to handle the responsibility of ruling a nation while under scrutiny of the United Republic and the awful papers they wrote, and none of those people were currently distracted by an engagement and an eccentric advisor who never  _ shut the fuck up _ .

Outside, the sun was blinding and her people - her soldiers - had their eyes focused on her and Baatar, who came out of the train car with a grin Kuvira had only seen once. Last night, when she kissed the man instead of actually saying yes. At the end of the crowd, Silah and a few others stood on a newly erected stone stage. The general had a pleasant face on, right next to Varrick with the smuggest smile Kuvira had ever seen, and the always stone faced Zhu Li.

“Good morning. First, I want to thank everyone for being patient with me, especially the advisors and generals I was supposed to be meeting with. Second, me and Baatar have an announcement. I don’t know what rumours circulated when I didn’t show up on time, but I want to put them to rest. Last night, we got engaged. Now, I don’t discuss or particularly care about what you choose to do in your free time, and I expect you to extend that respect to me. Return to your posts.”

She wasn’t sure if they had heard the last sentence. Ever since the word  _ engagement _ was spoken, chatter had erupted among the crowd, and Varrick was even more pleased with himself, jumping off the stage to go high five and hug everyone he could lay a hand on.

An arm wrapped around her waist and Kuvira felt a warm breath on her cheek. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, can we go?”

“Sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that was it. I will most like be writing more Baavira because I love them (unfortunately I couldn't participate in Baavira Week this year and it makes me sad but I may just end up doing it now because time is a lie created bu the government am I right), and I really want to do full length works about them.
> 
> For anything, hit me up on my Tumblr @musicgays or my Instagram @metalclans!


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